April 24, 2024

Orbit irrigation valves

My valve is not a "jar top". It is a 3/4 inline 57280-20C unit and it has screws holding the top on. But the basic way the valve works is the same regardless of what you have to do to take the top off.

Some notes on valves

After about 8 years it came time to replace a valve. It was leaking, and worse yet, not turning on to water plants. That is "OK" more or less, they warranty them for 6 years and a new valve only costs about $16. The ugly part is tearing into the plumbing and replacing the thing.

The new valve was an Orbit 3/4 inline, the part number seems to be 57280-20C.

Here is the worst part. I use a 3/4 inch inline version of their valve. The available replacement (at Lowes) is 1/2 inch shorter. When I installed the original, I provided unions at each end, but now I am coming up short by 1/2 inch! They get three black marks for this. Why do they do such things? Why not just keep making the original valve, or at least keep critical dimensions the same. Orbit must really scrape the bottom of the barrel to find their engineers.

A quick note on so called 3/4 PVC. It is 1.1 inches outside diameter and 0.8 inches inside diameter. According to my measurements. So the inside is sort of 3/4 inch. These are my measurements on schedule 40 pipe on hand.

Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Home repair pages / tom@mmto.org